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Tag: Artificial

Rolls-Royce Secures UK Funding for Innovative Naval Autonomy Technology

February 26, 2021 /

Rolls-Royce (London: RR.L) has been awarded funding by the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) to further develop and demonstrate the Artificial Chief Engineer® technology – an autonomous machinery control system which allows Naval vessels to undertake long endurance missions with less human interaction.

Developed by Rolls-Royce, Artificial Chief Engineer® is a critical enabler for autonomous missions by acting as the equivalent of the engineering department responsible for the health and the operation of an unmanned vessel’s machinery. Navies intend to increase their use of optionally-manned and unmanned vessels to project power further for less cost by reducing reliance on manpower, allowing higher-risk or longer-endurance missions, and by lowering the procurement and operating costs of future platforms.

The funding to continue the development, has been awarded under the UK MOD’s Defence and Security Accelerator Intelligent Ship Phase Two programme, which is used to de-risk and evaluate technologies and approaches to enhance the armed forces’ technical advantage.

Rapid growth in automation, autonomy, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) has prompted the need to investigate how human-machine teaming can effectively take place. This 16-month programme aims to investigate how effective human-AI collaboration can be best exploited to improve decision-making and planning within complex operating environments.

Artificial Chief Engineer is an on-board, secure, decision-making control system designed to intelligently operate the machinery of lean-manned and unmanned naval vessels. The technology makes condition-based decisions about how best to operate the machinery – including the engines, propulsion system, electrical network and fuel system – using algorithms to optimise the ship for maximum efficiency, lowest noise, top speed or to preserve damaged equipment as required by the ship’s mission. This reduces the workload of remote operators and allows increased mission and system complexity in future unmanned ship designs.

Intelligent Ship is a Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) project to develop novel and innovative technologies and concepts to facilitate the use of intelligent systems within future platforms, with potential for utilisation across defence. The aim is to de-risk and evaluate technologies and approaches to enable revolutionary future platform, fleet, and cross-domain concepts to enhance UK military advantage.

Wrapping around the Artificial Chief Engineer project will be Rolls-Royce’s Aletheia FrameworkTM. This is a ground-breaking standard it has developed to ensure that before artificial intelligence is used all ethical considerations have been fully assessed, and that once an AI is deployed, its decisions are trustworthy. The Aletheia Framework is as part of a campaign led by Rolls-Royce to improve public trust in artificial intelligence so that its full potential can be realized for good across the world.

Queensland to Assemble Boeing’s First Australian Designed & Developed Unmanned Aircraft

October 5, 2020 /

Queensland is poised to take another bold step in aerospace and advanced manufacturing with an historic opportunity to be the final production home for unmanned defence aircraft – the first military aircraft to be designed, engineered and manufactured in Australia in more than 50 years.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said a visionary new partnership with Boeing Australia means more high-skilled jobs, local supply opportunities and defence industry stimulus as Queensland continues to recover and grow from the COVID downturn.

Our investment in this advanced manufacturing project will provide critical skills for suppliers, academia and Boeing, and culminate in Queensland becoming the primary final assembly facility for the Boeing Airpower Teaming System, conditional on orders.

The first aircraft prototype, called the Loyal Wingman, was unveiled with the Royal Australian Air Force in May this year.

Treasurer Cameron Dick said the Boeing partnership demonstrated the Palaszczuk government’s commitment to advanced manufacturing.

“Manufacturing is a vital part of the Queensland economy, which is why supporting manufacturing is one of the centrepieces of our Unite and Recover Economic Recovery Plan,” the treasurer said.

“Our government’s longstanding commitment to advanced manufacturing is one of the reasons Queensland is already home to Boeing’s largest workforce outside the United States.

“Boeing has 1,700 staff in Queensland and supports 400 Queensland-based suppliers.

Boeing Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific President Brendan Nelson said the partnership with the Queensland government to develop an advanced manufacturing capability was a significant milestone for the company.

“This includes introducing technologies such as advanced robotics; investment in universities, small-to-medium enterprises and start-up companies; as well as creating global export opportunities for Australia’s supply chain.

ATS Engine Test

Boeing Australia Fires Up Engine on First Loyal Wingman Aircraft

September 14, 2020 /
ATS Engine Test

Boeing Australia powered up the commercial turbofan engine on the first Loyal Wingman aircraft in September, as part of ground testing and preparations for first flight.

This milestone comes on the heels of Boeing completing the first unmanned Loyal Wingman aircraft for the Royal Australian Air Force earlier this year, a major step forward for the unmanned vehicle serving as the foundation for the global Boeing Airpower Teaming System, an artificial intelligence-powered teaming aircraft developed for the global defense market.

“This engine run gets us closer toward flying the first aircraft later this year and was successful thanks to the collaboration and dedication of our team,” said Dr. Shane Arnott, program director of the Boeing Airpower Teaming System. “We’ve been able to select a very light, off-the-shelf jet engine for the unmanned system as a result of the advanced manufacturing technologies applied to the aircraft.”

ATS Engine Test

Microsoft Beats Amazon for Pentagon $10 Billion Cloud Computing Contract

October 26, 2019 /

WASHINGTON, Oct 25 (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp. has won the Pentagon’s $10 billion cloud computing contract, the Defense Department said on Friday, beating out favorite Amazon.com Inc.

The contracting process had long been mired in conflict of interest allegations, even drawing the attention of President Donald Trump, who has publicly taken swipes at Amazon and its founder Jeff Bezos. Trump in August said his administration was reviewing Amazon’s bid after complaints from other companies.

The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud (JEDI) contract is part of a broader digital modernization of the Pentagon meant to make it more technologically agile. Specifically, a goal of JEDI is to give the military better access to data and the cloud from battlefields and other remote locations.

Oracle Corp had expressed concerns about the award process for the contract, including the role of a former Amazon employee who worked on the project at the Defense Department but recused himself, then later left the Defense Department and returned to Amazon Web Services.

In a statement, an Amazon Web Services (AWS) spokesman said the company was “surprised about this conclusion.”

The company said that a “detailed assessment purely on the comparative offerings” would “clearly lead to a different conclusion,” according to the statement.

AWS is considering options for protesting the award, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Although the Pentagon boasts the world’s most potent fighting force, its information technology remains woefully inadequate, according to many officials.

Officials have complained of having outdated computer systems and being unable to access files or share information as quickly as they might be able to in the private sector.

“If I am a warfighter, I want as much data as you could possibly give me,” Lieutenant General Jack Shanahan, the director of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, told reporters in August describing the importance of the contract.

Some companies were concerned that a single award would give the winner an unfair advantage in follow-on work. The Pentagon has said it planned to award future cloud deals to multiple contractors.

This week, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper removed himself from reviewing the deal due to his adult son’s employment with one of the original contract applicants, IBM Corp. IBM had previously bid for the contract but had already been eliminated from the competition.

Microsoft said it was working on a comment. IBM and Oracle did not immediately return requests for comment.

In a book slated for publication Oct. 29, retired Navy commander Guy Snodgrass, who served as a speech writer to former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, said Trump called Mattis and directed him to “screw Amazon” by preventing it from bidding on the JEDI contract, according to an excerpt of the book seen by Reuters ahead of its release.

“We’re not going to do that,” Mattis later told other Pentagon officials, according to the excerpt. “This will be done by the book, both legally and ethically.”

Snodgrass declined to comment pending the release of his book.

In a statement announcing Microsoft as the winner, the Pentagon underscored its view that the competition was conducted fairly and legally.

“All (offers) were treated fairly and evaluated consistently with the solicitation’s stated evaluation criteria. Prior to the award, the department conferred with the DOD Inspector General, which informed the decision to proceed,” it said.

Microsoft shares were up 3% to $144.98 in after-hours trading after the news. Amazon shares were down 0.92% to $1,745.12.

The Pentagon said it had awarded more than $11 billion across 10 separate cloud contracts over the past two years.

“As we continue to execute the DOD Cloud Strategy, additional contracts are planned for both cloud services and complementary migration and integration solutions necessary to achieve effective cloud adoption,” the Pentagon said.

(Additional reporting by Stephen Nellis and Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco Reporting by Phil Stewart in Washington; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Sonya Hepinstall and Lincoln Feast)

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